Hands In Prayer Tattoo Designs Monster Tattoo Mansfield Notts

ne exponent of this age-old craft is a chap who has spent his formative years under the tutelage oi one Xed LeHead. Now with a pedigree like that, who can fail to go wrong? The talented work you see before you belongs to one Boff Konkerz from Divine Canvas bespoke tattooing in London, Boff had been designing tattoos for more than a decade before having an epiphany one evening and decided that tattooing was to be his destiny. From that evening on, Boif hasn't looked back and is now firmly ensconced at Divine Canvas passing on his hand-poked, traditional tattooing talents to all.

LEI'S START WITH A SIT OF HISTORY. WHAT ARE YOUR EARLIEST MEMORIES OF TATTOOS? WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START TATTOOING? WHEN DIO YOU START AND WHERE?

I have always been fascinated by tattoos, even though 1 knew no tattooed people when growing up. My earliest memories would be seeing tattooed people at the swimming baths at Butlins in Skegness on summer holiday in the late seventies. 1 knew from an early age that I would be heavily tattooed and as a child would seek out images of tattoos wherever I could. This was not easy back then. I had a picture from a Guinness Book of Records of Rusty Skuse that I was very pleased with and a black and white photo of a Japanese bodysuit that I ripped out of

AT THIS POINT LUCKY WAS ALREADY TATTOOED COMPLETELY BLACK, SO WE LOOKED FOR A LIGHT SPOT AND I TATTOOED A SMALL BUDDHIST SWASTIKA ON HIS LEG

an old encyclopaedia. In the early eighties a picture of a heavily tattooed person was a rare find, this being before the Internet and even tattoo magazines. I remember buying my first tattoo magazine around 1988.1 got my first tattoo from Paul Green at the Monster Shop in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire in 1990. It was a small Celtic design, now covered, that I came up with myself. From then on I designed all my own tattoos and started drawing tilings up for friends. It just seemed the natural thing to do, to get a unique piece rather than something off the wall.

WHIRI DO YOU THINK YOUR INTEREST IN TATTOOS AND TATTOOING COMES FROM?

It comes from deep down and way back.

IHO TATTOOING COME EASILY TO YOU FROM THE OFF?

I had a 15-year gap between starting to draw tattoo designs and actually tattooing, so I didn't rush into things. But once I began hand-poking tattoos tilings seemed to flow fairly naturally.

DID YOU GET AN APPRENTICESHIP OR WERE YOU SELF-TAUGHT?

1 had been tattooed a few times by my good friend Xed LeHead and we were actually sharing a house in North London when I decided I wanted to learn how to tattoo without a machine. I had already had two small eight pointed stars hand poked on my hands by Xed and when Xed did them I knew it was something I was interested in learning to do. I was working in a pub in Camden Town at the time and I decided on the way home from work one night to ask Xed to give me some advice on getting started. When I arrived home Xed wasn't in, but Lucky Diamond Rich was; Lucky also lived with us at the time. I told Lucky that I was gonna ask Xed for some advice and Lucky said there was no time like the present, showed me how to make a hand tool and let me tattoo him there and then. At this point Lucky was already tattooed completely black, so we found a light spot on his leg and

I tattooed a small Buddhist swastika on him. So I actually did my first tattoo on the most tattooed man in the world! After that I did a couple of tattoos on myself, showed them to friends and straight away people wanted me to tattoo them. One of my first customers was lestyn Flye, who's now the piercer/body modification artist at Divine Canvas.

WHAT'S THE ATMOSPHERE AND AMBIENCE LIKE IN THE STUDIO?

It's great to be working at Divine Canvas; we have a real eclectic mix of personalities and styles. Everyone knows Xed's work, his sense of humour and his legendary timekeeping, but everyone on the team brings something to the table. Gem Love is a laid-back, rock and roll geezer who produces great Japanese and Old School work, Damien Voodoo is a unique character in the tattoo world who has a passion for dot shaded pin-ups with an urban twist, Eric Blanc is a talented painter and illustrator who can turn his hand to anything- a real draughtsman. Then we have lestyn Flye doing all manner of piercing and extreme body modification. And of course we have Mad Alan, with his uncompromising anti-tattooing and larger than life persona. C

I worked my first convention at Bournemouth Ink in May this year. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to doing more of them. Due to the unusual nature of my work I had quite an audience while I was tattooing. Many people told me they had never seen a tattoo applied this way, well, now they have!

WHO ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES, INCLUDING BOTH TATTOOISTS AND THE MORE TRADITIONAL ARTISTS?

Xed LeHead is my biggest influence; both as an artist but also in the way he approaches tattooing. I also like Yann Black, Duncan X... too many to mention really. As for traditional artists... I like the Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada, his Day of the Dead artwork is much more striking than the comic book versions we see in tattoos at the moment... rougher and darker. I also like folk art from India and China. I am an avid reader of independent comics, particularly the work of Los Bros Hernandez and Charles Burns, and I get a lot out of the way these artists use only black ihk to achieve stunning results.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE STYLE OF TATTOOING? CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR OWN STYLE?

I see myself as having a technique rather than a style. I mainly work with black ink and I use dot shading a lot. I like to tackle any kind of design using hand tools; often a customer comes to me with an idea or design and I'll tweak it a bit so it works by hand. I've recently completed a sleeve of Jose Pasada-style skeletons and I'm working on a large thigh piece in a similar style featuring a skeletal double bass player. I'd like to do more of this kind of thing in the future, but 1 also enjoy doing the abstract, neo-tribal and geometric stuff,

WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOUR CHOSEN AREA OF EXPERTISE THAI YOU ENJOY SO MUCH? WHY WERE YOU DRAWN TO IT?

It's a rare and special thing. It's slower, and this is no bad thing in today's quick fix, fast food culture. It has soul and is deeply connected with our collective past. The energy exchange is direct between tattooist and client, no electricity. I'm not manipulating an external energy source; I'm just pushing that ink in myself. It's the difference between riding a horse and driving a car. It's about the journey as much as the destination and not iv.sldbdeeti. co.uk Jselim Iflfi

WE CAN NITPICK ALL DAY OVER THIS FACET OR THAT. ARGUE ABOUT THE "GOOD OLD DATS" OR WHATEVER, BUT THE SIMPLE UNDENIABLE FACT IS THAT TATTOOING IS WINNING, IT'S GROWING AND IT'S ALIVE

just how quick you get from A to B. Having said that, there's something very forward looking in what I do as a few years ago, the tattoo industry was too small to support someone as niche as me. I'm also very interested in the reductive nature of the way I work. Even though I'm only using a needle lashed to a stick and black ink, the amount of potential tattoos which could be applied this way is infinite, the same as the amount of potential tattoos wliich could be applied using all the colours in existence and every machine known to man.

WHAT WOULD BE THE ULTIMATE TATTOO FOR VOU TO CREATE? WHAT SUBJECT MATTER/PLACEMENT/ TECHNIQUES WOULD YOU USE?

I'm very fond of tattooing hands and would be happy to spend the rest of my days just tattooing that part of the body. I tattooed my own hands very early on in my career, including tattooing my right hand with my left (I'm right handed). There's something about it which suits handwork. Hands are small enough that the relatively slow process of

tattooing without a machine means it doesn't take too long to cover a hand. Also the ink goes into the fingers really well and never blows. Tattooing a full hand by hand is tire ultimate mano a mano.

WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE ON WHAT YOU WILL ANO WON'T TATTOO?

If it's not going to look good I won't do it. I'm not in it for the money, I'm in it for the art. 1 won't do a tattoo I don't want to do just to take money off someone. If 1 were that kind of guy I wouldn't be working by hand. I wouldn't tattoo anything Nazi/ fascist on anyone, but I don't think anyone would come to me for that kind of work.

DO YOU WORK IN ANY OTHER MEDIUMS, E.G. SCULPTURE, PAINTING? DO THESE PURSUITS INFLUENCE YOUR TATTOOING WORK AT All?

I only really draw within the context of creating tattoo designs. I've always done music, I sing and write songs for and electro band called Ape Sex And The Fear. There's no direct link to tattooing, but it's all about creativity, self-expression and individuality.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE PARI OF BEING AN ARTIST?

Being paid for my work rather than working for pay. Being challenged daily, seeing myself grow as an artist . it's all good!

DO YOU HAVE ANY AMBITIONS IN EITHER THE TATTOOING INDUSTRY OR OTHERWISE?

Just to keep on keeping on, enjoying my time at Divine Canvas and meeting and tattooing lots of interesting folk. I'm also planning on replacing the obsolete monetary system with a resource-based economy, but these things take time.

HAVE YOU SEEN ANY CHANCES IK THE TATTOO INDUSTRY THAT WORRY OR CONCERN YOU?

Wo, the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned. Bring it on!

IS THERE ANYBODY YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK FOR HELPING YOU OVER THE YEARS?

Xed, all the people I've tattooed in the past and the ones I'm going to tattoo in the future. And Bungle.

Ever Wanted to Get a Tattoo? Here is a Priceless Guide on How to Choose the Perfect Tattoo! Do you ever find yourself admiring the artistic work of another person’s tattoo? Do you wish you had the nerve to get one of your own but just aren’t sure you know enough about them to take that final step?